Login

A mission overview

XIPE is a new mission concept selected by ESA in June 2015 to undergo a 2 years-long assessment phase in the context of the Cosmic Vision M4 competition. The mission is devoted to the observation of celestial sources in X-rays:

X-ray polarimetry is photon hungry, but scientifically needed

A dedicated mission is required

XIPE uniqueness:

Time-, spectrally-, spatially-resolved X-ray polarimetry as a breakthrough in high energy astrophysics and fundamental physics

It will explore this observational window after 40 years from the last positive measurement, with a dramatic improvement in sensitivity: from one to hundred sources

In the violent X-ray sky, polarimetry is expected to have a much greater impact than in most other wavelengths. A large number of scientific topics and observable sources will thus be accessible to XIPE: